In Remission !!

Meet Laura:

I am an artist and musician from Sydney Australia. It’s hard to juggle a lot of things at once already (especially in the age of austerity) so getting sick was a literal nightmare. I have no family history, and was otherwise very healthy. It just happened. Luckily, through dedication and willpower I’ve come to figure out what was causing my extremely severe colitis. I’m currently living overseas, symptom free and maintaining a healthy diet in Paris, while a complete a research residency. This is no easy feat, the cakes are hypnotic. But I just need to remember how sick I was, not that long a go, and the motivation is to choose long term health over immediate gratification.

Some more about Laura:

I make electronic noise music and am an installation artist currently practicing in Paris but am based in Sydney. I try not to let UC be a curse. In fact I think i’m a better person now. Much more in tune with my body, I understand the gut and nutrition. I think that getting UC is going to prevent more diseases down the track and without a doubt feel better every day.

Current Colitis Symptoms..Any…Any…:

Symptom free!

Laura’s In Remission Story

Hi guys,
I’m 29 years old and was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis a year and 4 months ago.

I had severe symptoms for 3 months prior to this but over 5 different doctor consultations sent me home thinking I was crazy…” you’ve got hemorrhoids, DON’T WORRY!!”

At the time I was under the impression it was normal to sh$$t blood more than 4 times a day. When it began to be more and more frequent I stopped trusting the frankly idiotic doctors and knew something was up. The doctors were reading my blood results and not looking at me as a person, very sick and in need of help.

I have the blood type that shows no CRP a common link to inflammation. As this marker was “normal” further investigative action was never taken. I was gravely ill by the time it was finally diagnosed, luckily by a good friends father who was a gastroenterologist, and booked me a colonoscopy without meeting me because he knew it was serious just by one phone conversation. When it started to be 20 BM’s a day he escalated my colonoscopy to emergency and I was hospitalized immediately after. I was told that I was days away from a perforated bowel. Luckily it was caught just in time.

I’m sitting here today, in disbelief of how far I’ve come in such a short time.

I was put on pentasa 1g a day and a large dose of steroids that were intravenously administered and then lowered till 5 months later I was off steroids and up to 2g of pentasa a day. I went about my life as normal, took the medication, tried to juggle work, music and art career plus my masters and a relationship. The relationship crumbled, and I have to admit I hopped on the party train took up smoking again, was drinking most days…and of course within a few months, got sick again, I also lost my job of 4 years and to be honest it all felt completely hopeless!

I was told by the doctors that I would have to go on immuno-suppressants from which I was vehemently against, from the beginning always said no. It felt too soon! I hadn’t tried anything else, i’d just been diagnosed!

I told them I didn’t want to, my instinct and every fibre in my body was saying don’t trust these doctors, not because they don’t have my best interests at heart but because they didn’t know me, and as scary as it was, I embarked on a journey alone.

Changing my diet, I now strictly follow the Specific Carbohydrate diet, I exercise regularly and I quit alcohol. The doctors gave me a success rate of 30% or less and 6 weeks before I relapsed.

I am happy to say that I proved them wrong.

In my last colonoscopy it showed absolutely no disease activity. I am in full remission. This is after literally the whole colon being ulcerated just a few months before that. I’m a huge researcher, i’ve tried lots of supplements but at the end of the day, a good probiotic, homemade yoghurt and SCD diet seems to be working.

I’ve also had a ridiculous amount of support from friends and family who believed in me, believed I could make this diet work and for that I am infinitely grateful.

How She Treats It:

I am following the SCD diet strictly and rarely use enemas, when i’m not feeling well (rarer and rarer these days) +2g pentasa daily.

written by Laura

submitted in the colitis venting area